Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday proposed scaling back a multibillion-dollar transit hub and abolishing the agency that approved redevelopment plans at ground zero, seeking greater city control over its most high-profile building project.

The World Trade Center's owner announced a major design change to its multibillion-dollar transit hub Tuesday, a day after concluding that most projects at ground zero are behind schedule and over budget.

Seeking to revive their lawsuit, Brooklyn residents whose homes will be lost to make way for a new arena for the NBA's Nets urged an appeals court Tuesday to let them find out if the developer of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project got a sweetheart deal.Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, a lawyer for the families, told a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it should return the case to a federal judge in Brooklyn so they can research whether the land is being taken unfairly.

For the second time in eight months, New York's highest court ruled Tuesday that former Gov. George Pataki exceeded his authority when he tried to keep sex offenders locked up after completing their criminal sentences.